Approved MBCT Mentors
Andréanne Elie MD FRCPC
Andréanne has been a psychiatrist for 20 years. She has been meditating for 15 years. She is based in Montreal. She leads MBCT groups in hospital settings (since 2010) and at Mindspace clinic in Montreal (since 2016). She is a faculty member at Université de Montréal where she leads mindfulness groups for medical students. She has completed teacher training and certification in MBCT. She is also trained in CBT.
Mark Lau Ph.D., R.Psych
Mark is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, and a registered psychologist in private practice at the Vancouver CBT Centre. Mark was first introduced to MBCT in 1995 when he began working with Dr. Zindel Segal in Toronto to help conduct the first MBCT outcome study. He spent the next 11 years working with Dr. Segal before moving out to Vancouver in 2006. Mark has over 27 years experience providing Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to individuals and groups; conducting MBCT and CBT research; providing leadership in developing models of mental health care delivery including innovative ways of delivering MBCT & CBT; and, providing leadership in mentoring, training and education. He has provided MBCT single and multi-day professional trainings across North America, Europe and in Australia and Taiwan for mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, physicians, UBC internal medicine residents, as well as to university research administrators and college staff. Mark is also an MBCT mentor/trainer with the UCSD Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute. Mark’s research interests include investigating the mechanisms underlying MBCT’s effectiveness, the development and validation of the Toronto Mindfulness Scale, and evaluating effective methods of disseminating MBCT and CBT. He is a former Associate Editor of the journal Mindfulness.
Andrea Grabovac MD FRCPC
Andrea is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, and practices inpatient psychiatry at Vancouver Hospital. She has 15 years of outpatient psycho-oncology experience. Since 2006, she has facilitated group and individual MBIs for mood disorder, sexual medicine and oncology populations, using both Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and more recently Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MiCBT).
Andrea brings a unique combination of clinical expertise in psychophenomenological diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology, a clinically-informed understanding of Buddhist psychological frameworks, and experience with the stages of insight in the context of a 16 year Burmese Theravadan vipassana personal practice to the mentorship process. This amalgamation of experience allows her to clinically manage the complex interrelationship between meditation-induced altered states and primary psychopathology.
She provides annual 5-day MBCT professional trainings, co-facilitates monthly MBCT training focused on inquiry and developing clinicians’ personal practice since 2009, and is an MBCT mentor with the UCSD Mindfulness Based Program Training Institute. She is a Founding Co-Director of the North American Chapter of the MiCBT Institute, and trains clinicians in the delivery of MiCBT internationally.
Her academic publications explore the clinical relevance of re-contextualizing mindfulness based interventions within Buddhist psychological frameworks. She has recently co-authored competency-based guidelines for training Canadian psychiatrists in MBIs that include the need for recognition and management of unintended clinical effects of meditation practice. She is Associate Editor for Mindfulness since 2013. She has practiced and studied in the Burmese Theravada Vipassana tradition since 2002.
Amanda Guthrie ND
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Amanda Guthrie is a Naturopathic Doctor and Psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a faculty member at The Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, where she facilitates MBCT groups for depression and anxiety, as well as trains healthcare professionals in MBCT as a therapeutic modality. In addition, she uses CBT and mindfulness-based interventions with individual clients in her private practice. Amanda is also a clinical and academic faculty member at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine where she supervises naturopathic medical interns in the teaching clinic and is involved in teaching the psychology curriculum. Amanda has completed the Supervised MBCT Facilitation Certificate offered by the Centre for Mindfulness Studies and certified by the University of Toronto Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work.
Contact Amanda Guthrie Visit her website: www.wholehealthtoronto.com
Tom Heah OT Reg. (BC)
Location: Vancouver, BC
Tom Heah works as an occupational therapist with Vancouver Coastal Community Mental Health and Substance Use Program, and has a private practice in Vancouver, B.C. He is a faculty and mentor in MBCT and MBSR with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, and an advisor with the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. He is certified through UCSD in facilitating MBSR and MBCT, and has completed the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation program at UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. Since 2006, Tom has facilitated mindfulness-based courses for people who have mental health, substance use issues, physical and neuromuscular conditions, and the general public. He is a clinical faculty member at the School of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia, where he has been involved in research, preceptorships with students, and lectured on mindfulness applications.
Angie Kingma OT Reg. (Ont.) RP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Angie Kingma is a Registered Psychotherapist, Occupational Therapist and MBCT Teacher with over 18 years of experience working in a variety of mental health and chronic pain settings. Angie has received extensive MBCT and Mindfulness Teacher training over the years through University of California San Diego (UCSD), The Centre for Mindfulness Studies and The University of Toronto. She has completed the Advanced MBCT Facilitation Certificate through the Centre and certified by the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies. She loves delivering Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programs to a variety of populations (including clients with anxiety, depression, chronic pain, as well as teachers/educators and hospital clinicians). In addition to being on faculty here at the Centre, Angie works part-time in Ambulatory Mental Health Services at Trillium Health Partners, owns a private practice called Mindfulness for Health and is a Mentor for the online ‘A Course in Mindful Living’. She co-founded the Mindfulness Halton/Peel Professionals’ Community.
Balinda Ting Li
Balinda is a bilingual MBP facilitator (Mandarin & English), trainer & mentor of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in CMS & CCMA, a certified facilitator of Mindful Self Compassion, as well as Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery, and she finished Certificate from Institute for Meditation & Psychotherapy (IMP).
She has been practiced Vipassana meditation for over 10 years and learned Buddhism in South Asia and North America, she’s an interpreter for revered monastics in retreat.
Balinda is also a writer, translator and influencer with 30k followers self-media — Mindfulness Space, she enjoyed bring Mindfulness to Chinese community, and founded a non-profit organization CCMA(China Canada Mindfulness Association) to run various MBP, she translated and published two books regarding mindfulness: Growing Up Mindful, MBCT Embodied Presence & Inquiry in Practice (English to Simplified Chinese). Balinda holds Master degree from Vlerick Business School.
Allison McLay BA DCS RP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Allison McLay has 25 years of experience in psychological assessment and counselling. Her areas of expertise include the assessment and treatment of learning disabilities and ADHD. She has worked in both private practice and the social service sector and currently works for the disabilities and personal counselling departments at York University. Allison practices mindfulness personally and professionally. She co-facilitates MBCT groups for anxiety/depression and training professionals.
Gwen Morgan MA MSW RSW RP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Gwen Morgan is a registered social worker and psychotherapist with many years of experience, working in hospital and community settings. She is a certified MBCT instructor, as well as being certified in MBSR and MB-EAT. Gwen had the privilege of attending intensive trainings with Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat Zinn and other senior trainers. Currently she facilitates Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), MBSR, and groups at The Centre for Mindfulness Studies and in the Community Program, which offers mindfulness to marginalized peoples and communities. Gwen mentors professionals in MBCT through their certification process and does professional training workshops and conference presentations. Gwen is an Approved Mentor with The Centre for Mindfulness Studies and with the University of San Diego Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute.
Rosemina Munjee RP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Rosemina Munjee is an Certified MBSR, MBCT, and MSC instructor and Approved Mentor with The Centre for Mindfulness Studies and a certified instructor of MSC for the Center for Mindful Self Compassion. Rosemina completed her training and certification with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, The University of Toronto, and the Center for Mindful Self Compassion in San Diego. Rosemina is also a Registered Psychotherapist, Corporate Mindfulness Trainer and Coach, Trauma Informed Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer, Buddhist Studies and Spiritual Care Master’s Student at University of Toronto, Craniosacral Therapist, and a Therapeutic, Hatha, and Restorative Yoga Teacher with over 600 hours of specialized training. She has worked in Technology and Financial Services as a Project Manager, Data Scientist, and Change Management Technology Analyst, and was introduced to mindfulness based stress reduction over 18 years ago. Rosemina is also training and is involved in intensive study and practice with True North Insight as a Community Meditation/Dharma Teacher as well as studying Trauma Informed and Somatic Therapy. She has sat numerous retreats at TNI, Spirit Rock, and Insight Meditation Society and has worked in Spiritual Care and Mental Health, using mindfulness and trauma informed psychotherapy in hospital, public, corporate, and community settings with a focus on providing trauma-informed care, building equity, diversity, and inclusiveness, anti-racism, anti-oppression, and reaching marginalized peoples. She has been a Teaching Assistant to Pat Rockman at the MBSR/MBCT Intensive Training for professionals and has mentored aspiring mindfulness teachers. Rosemina identifies as BIPOC, being of South Asian descent and having immigrated from South Africa at an early age and lived in Europe and Canada, she aspires to build capacity in marginalized and underserved communities for greater access to mindfulness and yoga programs and professional training. Rosemina is currently writing and researching about mindfulness based and somatic approaches for healing from the effects of trauma related to racism, oppression, and marginalization.
Melissa Nigrini M.Ed RP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Melissa Nigrini specializes in adult education and experiential learning, with over 20 years of experience designing, implementing and evaluating educationprograms and curricula. Melissa has been a mindfulness meditation practitioner for over 15 years and is a certified facilitator of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery and SMART Education. At the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, she is a facilitator, trainer and mentor, as well as curriculum and faculty development lead. She is a senior instructor in the Applied Mindfulness Meditation Program at University of Toronto. She also designs and facilitates mindfulness programs for organizations. Melissa is fluent in English, French and Spanish, and provides mentorship for delivery in these languages.
Thanh-Lan Ngô MD MSc FRCPC
Location: Montréal, QC
Contact Thanh-Lan Ngô Read her bio in English
Suzanne Paquette MD
Location: Montreal Quebec
Suzanne is a psychiatrist in an adult hospital affiliated outpatient clinic where she is also in charge of the collaborative mental health care service. She is trained in CBT, DBT and MBCT and has a serious and regular meditation practice since more than 20 years. After teaching MBCT to groups since 2010 and teaching mindfulness to medical students as a clinical teacher at University of Montreal for the past year, she recently qualified as an MBCT mentor with The Centre for Mindfulness Studies.
Rhea Plosker MC, MASc, RSW, RP
Location: Online (from Toronto, Ontario)
Rhea Plosker RSW RP is a Registered Social Worker, Registered Psychotherapist, and leadership coach working in private practice in Toronto, Ontario. She meets requirements for a clinical supervisor as defined by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.
Rhea has facilitated more than 40 MBSR, MBCT, and MBCT-Cancer groups. She designed and co-facilitates Mindfully Managing Anxiety and Uncertainty, an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group program. Rhea is an instructor with George Brown Continuing Education and a program leader with Wellspring Cancer Support.
Rhea has a passion for improving accessibility to mindfulness-based programs, both online and in-person. She supported the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in adapting and designing program curricula for online delivery, and trained facilitators to transition online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rhea holds certificates in CBT for Anxiety and Depression, Solution Focused Therapy, and is a Certified Intuitive Eating counsellor. She also has extensive training and supervision in the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Narrative Therapy. Rhea has recently completed the following mindfulness training programs and retreats:
Embodying Metta Retreat (True North Insight 2021)
Compassion and Wisdom: Meditative Training for Professional Caregivers (True North Insight 2021-2022)
Buddhist Psychology Training (Spirit Rock 2022)
Living Dharma Program (Spirit Rock 2022-2023)
Love and Death-Opening the Great Gifts (Upaya Zen Center 2023)
Wellspring Cancer Support-The Healing Journey Level 1 Facilitator Training (2023)
Social Work and psychotherapy is Rhea’s second career, following a corporate career as an engineer, technology executive and consultant. You can learn more about Rhea at www.inspirationsolutions.
Patricia Rockman MD CCFP FCFP
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Patricia Rockman is an associate professor with the University of Toronto, department of family and community medicine; cross appointed to psychiatry. She is the past chair of the Ontario College of Family Physicians Collaborative Mental Health Network. She is a medical psychotherapist and leads leads MBCT groups. She has been educating healthcare providers in stress reduction, CBT and mindfulness-based practices for over 20 years. She is a founder and the Director of Education and Clinical Services at The Centre for Mindfulness Studies and the developer of the MBCT Core Facilitation Certificate Program.
Blakie Sahay OT Reg. (Ont.)
Profession: Occupational Therapist & Psychotherapist
Ian Singer MA MSW RSW
Location: Toronto, Ontario